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Abstract: Tuberculosis ranks amongst the commonest infectious disease causes of death. We aim to unlock greater understanding of the immunological determinants of protection and pathogenesis in tuberculosis (TB), in order to stratify disease-risk following infection with Mtb or to develop a more effective vaccine than BCG. We have leveraged functional genomic investigation of the 100-year-old tuberculin skin test as a standardised experimental challenge to model human in vivo immune responses in TB. These studies have identified immunological pathways as potential therapeutic targets to ameliorate immunopathogenesis of disease, identification of genetic determinants of immune response variation, and introduce an antigen-agnostic approach to identify generalisable T cell responses as novel correlates of outcome.

Biography: I am a Clinician Scientist in Infectious Disease at University College London (UCL) and an Honorary Consultant at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) NHS Trust. I am Director of the UCL Division of Infection and Immunity, and UCL Wellcome Clinical PhD program, and I co-lead the Infection, Immunopathology and Immunotherapeutics Theme in the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at UCLH. I undertake basic science and clinical research on host‑microbial interactions to investigate the pathogenesis of infectious diseases focussing on tuberculosis and respiratory viruses. We aim to develop novel approaches for diagnosis, patient stratification, and identification of new targets for therapeutic intervention. My research is funded by the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, NIHR and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).